Boston Red Sox: Thoughts and takeaways from home-field clinching win

It was an all-around great night for the Boston Red Sox on Monday, as Alex Cora and company acquired a franchise-record 106th win.

A fantastic season just got even better on Monday night, as the Boston Red Sox were able to obtain their franchise-record 106th win in front of the Fenway faithful, thereby solidifying home-field advantage throughout the entire 2018 playoffs.

The celebration started after Matt Barnes came on in the ninth inning to finish off a 6-2 win against the 45-111 Baltimore Orioles.

The much-needed win for Boston came at a fortuitous time, especially after their tough series against the Cleveland Indians, where poor bullpen pitching resulted in two walk-off wins on back-to-back nights for the Tribe.

Bullpen wins it this time

On Monday night however, the pen finished off the job, pitching four innings and only giving up one run on three strikeouts. Eduardo Rodriguez notably redeemed himself after an ugly outing against the New York Yankees this past Thursday, where the usual starter only managed three and two thirds innings pitched, giving up five earned runs on seven walks! Against Baltimore, the lefty came in clutch, pitching two scoreless innings of relief, collecting two strikeouts, surrendering no walks this time around.

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Not including the rough Yankee start, Rodriguez has had a surprisingly competent year, achieving a 12-4 record with a 3.73 ERA, adding in 139 strikeouts, according to Baseball-Reference.

Despite a successful 2018 from E-Rod, Alex Cora is reportedly still figuring out rotations for the playoffs.

Depending on who they face in the American League Division Series (most likely either New York or Oakland), will most likely determine who will start and who will be in the bullpen. Rodriguez sometimes suffers from Drew Pomeranz-syndrome, where he pitches fine, but tends to have rising pitch counts because of inaccuracy. The Yankee game from Thursday was a perfect example of that. He may be better in short-term situations.

On the other end of the spectrum, Joe Kelly struggled the most out of anyone in the bullpen on Monday. The righty only stayed in the contest for a third of the seventh inning, giving up a leadoff single, a walk, a strikeout, and then another walk. Luckily, Ryan Brasier came into save the day, giving up only one run on a sacrifice fly (the run was charged to Kelly).

To be honest, I don’t even think Kelly can make it into any part of the pitching staff this October. He’s gotten worse every month, and has a 15.70 ERA over his past seven appearances, according to MLB.com. His chances become even more unlikely after the emergence of a possible move to the pen for Rodriguez. He would probably take Kelly’s place as a long-term reliever.

Throw Nathan Eovaldi into the equation, and things become even more interesting for the organization. the mid-season acquisition has been good but not great throughout the past two months of baseball.

On Monday night, he came up big, pitching five innings and obtaining 10 strikeouts. Again, depending on match-ups in the playoffs, Nathan Eovaldi could find himself either in the bullpen, or in the starting rotation.

The home-field advantage aspect matters a lot too, as Rodriguez has been pretty consistent in games at Fenway, and games on the road. Eovaldi on the other hand struggles away from Boston, posting a 5.09 ERA in six starts, compared to a 2.17 when he starts at home. That alone can help determine either one’s fate come playoff time.

Mookie Betts keeps on rolling

Undoubtedly, the Boston Red Sox leadoff hitter will win AL MVP. He hit another home run against Baltimore, and finished 2-5 with two RBIs. The offense in general managed a quick four runs in the second, and never looked back. Other than Mookie Betts, four other Red Sox players also collected RBIs, perfectly representing the talent level within all parts of the batting order.

With less than a week left in the regular season, there’s really not much else Cora needs to do other than figure out who will make the Boston Red Sox 25-man roster. It will be tough, but it’s definitely a good problem to have considering how magical their season has been up to this point.